Sony 4K delivery: we still don't have the whole picture

Sony's 4K delivery system at NAB

Sony has been teasing us with glimpses of their new 4K delivery system since shortly after they released details of their 84" 4K Bravia TV. Concrete details have been thin on the ground, and we still don't know what the final product will look like. And there's a bigger question as well…

It's all very well having 4K display devices but if you don't have any content they might as well not exist. It's quite clear that there will be an abundance of 4K material in the near future because RedShark suspects that we're not very far from the point that no-one will release new cameras that merely have HD resolution (we don't know how far but it may be as little as a year or 18 months).

"Rented"

Soon after the 84" Bravia appeared Sony announced that there would be a device to accompany the television that would be pre-loaded with 4K feature films. Initially, and rather enigmatically, Sony said that this device (with no name) could be "rented" from them.

On Sunday 7th April, we learned at Sony's NAB Press Conference that the streaming and storage device could now be bought for $699, and that it would be updatable to download 4K material from Sony via the internet.

There are two remaining questions.

First, what's the device going to be called?

Second, what's it actually going to look like? In fact, is it going to look like the Playstation 4? In fact - and this is a long shot - is it actually going to be the Playstation 4.

We could be way out with this speculation, and we actually think we probably are in this case, but it does remain an intriguing possibility that the reason that neither the final shape and form of the 4K streaming device, nor that of the Playstation 4, have been revealed, is that they are one and the same device.